The Old Dark House (1932)

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Movie
German title The Old Dark House
Original title The Old Dark House
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 70 minutes
Rod
Director James Whale
script Benn W. Levy ,
RC Sherriff
production Carl Laemmle, Jr. for
Universal Studios
music David Broekman
camera Arthur Edeson
cut Clarence Kolster
occupation

The Old Dark House (German alternative titles: Das Haus des Grauens und Das Haus des Schreckens ) is an American horror film directed by James Whale from 1932. The film is based on the 1927 novel Von der Nachtlies ( Benighted ) by John Boynton Priestley .

action

Margaret and Philip Waverton are driving their car to Shrewsbury with their boyfriend Roger Penderel. In the mountains of Wales they are caught in a storm and torrential rain. When the street was washed away, they took refuge in the Femms house.

The residents of the house, consisting of the mute and monstrous butler Morgan, the opaque atheist Horace Femm and his religiously fanatical and hateful sister Rebecca Femm, are uncomfortable with the travelers, but given their situation they have no alternative but to stay. In the course of the evening two more refugees join the group, the primitive millionaire Sir William Porterhouse and the stage dancer Gladys DuCane. The uninvited guests are especially a thorn in the side of the hostess Rebecca. She casually mentions the tragic "accident" of her sister Rachel many years ago, while Horace later makes a hint that the police are looking for him.

The situation escalates for the first time when the drunk butler Morgan goes on a rampage and pursues Margaret. However, he can first be switched off by Philip. While a romance unfolds between Roger and Gladys, Margaret and Philip bump into the bedridden, 102-year-old family patriach Sir Roderick in the house. He tells them about the madness of his children Rebecca and Horace and about his eldest son Saul. The Wavertons are alarmed to hear that the insane Saul is locked in the attic because he wants the house and its residents to go up in flames.

The recovered Morgan has meanwhile released Saul. While the others lock the butler in the kitchen, Roger wants to render the freed madman harmless. When confronted, Saul tells him that he was innocently held captive by his siblings for witnessing their murder of their sister Rachel. But it quickly becomes clear that he only wants to implement his pyromaniacal plans. He incapacitates Roger and begins his work, but unlike in the novel, all guests survive the night, also thanks to the courageous intervention of Roger. Eventually Roger and Gladys become a couple.

Remarks

  • According to the Penguin Encyclopaedia of Horror and the Supernatural , the role of 102-year-old Sir Roderick Femm was played by Elspeth Dudgeon because Whale didn't know a male actor who looked old enough to play the role believably. Dudgeon, born in 1871, was barely 60 years old; she lived until 1955.
  • Gloria Stuart , who plays Margaret Waverton, is the last one of the 1932 cast to die. She turned 100 and played the elder Rose in James Cameron's Titanic (1997).

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created in 1988, shortly before the West German television premiere on March 10, 1989.

role actor German Dubbing voice
Roger Penderel Melvyn Douglas Reinhard Glemnitz
Philip Waverton Raymond Massey Frank Engelhardt
Margaret Waverton Gloria Stuart Katharina Lopinski
Sir William "Bill" Porterhouse Charles Laughton Lambert Hamel
Gladys DuCane Lilian Bond Madeleine proud
Horace Femm Ernest Thesiger Thomas Reiner
Rebecca Femm Eva Moore Marianne Wischmann
Sir Roderick Femm Elspeth Dudgeon Leo Bardischewski
Saul Femm Brember Wills Klaus Höhne

reception

Bizarre and eerie dialogues - “No bed! No bed for her! ”“ They filled this house with laughter and sin, with laughter and sin. ”“ Everyone around me is crazy, only I am normal. ”“ Nice fabric, it will rot. Her beautiful skin, too, rots over time! ”Etc. - are characteristic of Das Haus des Horens and set the film apart from other horror films of the 1930s. While the film found a wide audience in England because of its ironic, black humor , Whales Film was initially unsuccessful in the USA. The film was lost for many years until the original film roles were rediscovered around 1970. However, the film was not shown on television until 1994 due to copyright issues with William Castle's 1963 remake ( The Old Dark House ) as a comedy.

The Motion Picture Guide wrote that Whale's film was “masterfully staged.” In 1990, Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz judged in the lexicon “Films on TV” that The Old Dark House was a “(...) melodramatic horror grotesque that left the viewer between smiles and Laughter keeps; a classic of the genre (...). ”(Rating: 3 stars = very good) The book Spielfilme 89 published in 1988 wrote:“ A rarity of the horror film - eerily beautiful and full of black irony (...) Through light and Shadow games, shock effects and sarcastic-threatening dialogues, Whale manages to saturate the hours until dawn with psychological terror so that the worst can be expected (...) cult classics. "The lexicon of international films was also largely positive:" A scary comedy that is one of the great classics of the genre; a fireworks of dramatic pieces that make you forget the ridiculous plot. "

"One of the most memorable films" is what Walter Benjamin called the strip in a letter to Theodor W. Adorno and his wife Gretel. "If you should find him in any retrospective, don't miss it."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Old Dark House at the German dubbing index
  2. IMDB Release Info
  3. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 622
  4. Dirk Manthey (ed.), Jörg Altendorf (ed.), Willi Bär (ed.): Feature films 89. The highlights of the television year . Kino Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-89324-037-3 , p. 49
  5. The Old Dark House. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 22, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ^ Gretel Adorno / Walter Benjamin: Correspondence 1930–1940. Frankfurt a. M. 2019. p. 323.
  7. ^ Gretel Adorno / Walter Benjamin: Correspondence 1930–1940. Frankfurt a. M. 2019. p. 324.